Performance Appraisal Essentials

A Practical Guide

Sorin Dumitrascu

• Publisher: PublishDrive
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9798201410643
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

The performance appraisal process is a vital tool for achieving organizational success, but there are few tasks managers dislike more. One manager describes how he used to feel about performance appraisals: "I was always relieved when I completed my yearly employee appraisal meetings. I never enjoyed them. In fact, I often delayed the meetings until the last minute, and the employees' reactions seemed to range from stony politeness to anger to crying."

No matter how you feel about appraisals, in this course you'll learn that by planning well for appraisals, you can make the process less uncomfortable.

Appraisals must be linked to performance goals that matter, and these goals should reflect both organizational and individual goals.

Of course, preparing for appraisals takes time. But the extra effort can transform a routine bureaucratic chore into a process that helps you, your employees, and your organization.

In this course, you'll learn why performance appraisals are important. You'll be introduced to the steps in developing employee performance plans, and get to practice developing a plan. You'll also learn how to monitor ongoing performance, which will help prepare you for future employee appraisals.

Poorly planned or subjective appraisals won't help employees perform well.

But effectively planned appraisals can result in employees who perform their jobs well. They have the certainty that they are addressing the highest priority responsibilities and operating in a way that the organization expects.

Methods for delivering feedback

Have you ever had an unsatisfactory performance appraisal experience, where your manager focused on development needs or wasn't clear about performance or expectations? Many people have.

Consider Caylie. Caylie is the appraisee in a 360-degree appraisal process. She helped choose her appraisers, and she also provided thoughtful and balanced information about herself in her appraisal interview. Now she's looking forward to receiving her feedback. But when the boss calls Caylie into her office, he's nervous and hesitant. He focuses on delivering positive feedback, but glosses over the areas where Caylie could use improvement. Caylie feels betrayed. She decides to forget about the whole experience and move on.

Question

Good feedback is important for growth. When Caylie's manager failed to deliver feedback effectively, Caylie probably missed out on opportunities for improvement.

Examine your own feelings about delivering honest feedback. How comfortable are you with it?

Options:

1. Very comfortable
2. Somewhat comfortable
3. Uncomfortable
4. I dread it

Answer

Option 1: Great. In this topic, you'll learn about some methods and techniques that will make you even more effective when it comes to delivering feedback.

Option 2: You're not alone. Many managers have mixed feelings. In this topic, you'll learn about some methods and techniques that will make you more comfortable with delivering feedback.

Option 3: Comfort level is often a function of knowledge and experience. This topic will provide you with information about methods and techniques you can use to improve your ability to deliver feedback. Practice what you learn here, and your comfort level will increase.

Option 4: Well, feedback is a critical part of the appraisal process. You need to develop a basic comfort level with delivering feedback in order to help your employees grow in their jobs. In this topic, you'll learn about some methods and techniques for delivering feedback effectively. As you practice what you learn, your comfort level should grow.

The desired end result of the 360-degree appraisal process is improved performance. Ideally, appraisees will take ownership of their feedback results and act on them, creating development plans that enable them to improve behaviors. However, for this to happen, you must communicate the feedback in a clear, organized, and positive way.

Fortunately, there are some best practices you can follow in learning how to deliver feedback so that the appraisees will respect and act on it.

You have two basic decisions to make when delivering feedback: which method to use and which techniques to use. First, choose the method. There are three popular ones: one-on-one meetings, group presentations, and self-study.

One-on-one meetings

One-on-one meetings involve sitting down with the appraisee in a private, neutral setting to deliver feedback and create a plan of action. Often used with high-level managers, the one-on-one meeting is suitable for situations in which confidentiality is required. It also enables the person delivering feedback to provide intensive coaching, when needed.

Group presentations

Group presentations are appropriate for delivering feedback to teams or business units where feedback concerns the group's performance and behaviors. Group presentations sometimes take the form of workshops. The feedback is presented, and participants practice skills.

Self-study

With the self-study method, appraisees receive the feedback report, review and analyze it, and then create a plan of action all on their own. There is little if any management-appraisee interaction. Self-study guides are provided to help interpret results and provide suggestions for creating the plan of action. Internal coaches are sometimes available to help in this regard.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each feedback delivery method. An advantage of the one-on-one meeting is that it provides dedicated time to the appraisee. You have sufficient time for probing into poor or difficult behaviors, discussing the need for change, and working out a plan of action. In effect, you may become a personal coach.

Another advantage of the one-on-one meeting is confidentiality. This is extremely important to some appraisees. Higher level employees, especially, find it difficult to reveal strengths and weaknesses. A private venue is much more conducive to an open discussion.

A third advantage of the one-on-one meeting is ease of scheduling. Since there are only two people involved, it's relatively easy to arrange a time to get together.

Question

Given what you know about the advantages of one-on-one meetings, what do you think might be the disadvantages?

Options:

1. Time requirements could be excessive
2. It could be very expensive
3. Appraisees are more liable to reject feedback
4. Appraisees may be intimidated by one-on-one situations

Answer

Option 1: This option is correct. Assuming it takes two days to plan and deliver feedback to a single appraisee, the time requirements for the one-on-one feedback delivery method can be significant.

Option 2: This option is correct. Based on an estimate of two days required to deliver feedback using the one-on-one method, the expense could be significant.

Option 3: This option is not correct. The feedback you're able to provide in a one-on-one meeting is very specific to the appraisee's behaviors, so appraisees are more likely to accept than reject the feedback.

Option 4: This option is not correct. Some appraisees may be intimidated by their managers, but this isn't sufficient reason to reject the one-on-one meeting as a method for delivering feedback.

The main disadvantages of the one-on-one meeting are time and expense. It could require a large commitment of time to deliver feedback one-at-a-time to appraisees. And time is money – the more time required, the higher the cost.

Another method for delivering feedback is the group presentation. This method works well for teams of employees, and for groups of employees who perform the same kind of work.

An advantage of the group presentation is that it enables you to deliver the same information consistently to many people at the same time. And since your presence is needed only once at the group session, there's a significant time and cost saving in comparison to the one-on-one meeting.

The group presentation method also provides a supportive environment. This is particularly helpful in cases of negative feedback. People can help each other understand and accept the information. And lastly, the group setting enables people to practice delivering feedback to one another. This is especially true if the group session is planned for a half-day or longer.

Of course, there are also disadvantages to the group presentation method. There's limited privacy and less individual attention. Appraisees who are fearful of revealing weaknesses in front of the group may not ask questions to clarify areas of confusion. This means they may miss out on understanding how feedback is applied to their behavior. Another disadvantage is the difficulty of scheduling a group session. Scheduling conflicts can make it difficult to get a group of people together.

Group presentation

Because the claims adjusters do the same kind of work, this feedback could be delivered in a group presentation. The appraisees can help each other understand the feedback, and they can support each other if negative feedback is received. When deciding on a method for delivering feedback, consider the individuals involved, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

A third method of delivering feedback is the self-study method. This method is only used in companies where there's a high degree of acceptance and support for the 360-degree appraisal process. Employees must be well-versed in the process and in interpreting the results.

As an example, one well-known insurance company provides yearly, on-demand appraisals for its employees at the director level and above. Employees go online and simply request that an appraisal be done. They choose their own appraisers, who then complete a questionnaire that's aimed at evaluating the requester's key competencies.

Results are tabulated, and the feedback report is returned online to the requestor. Guidelines are included with the report to help the requestor interpret results and develop an appropriate ...

Table of contents

• Performance Appraisal Essentials: Planning for Appraisals
• Why Conduct Performance Appraisals?
• Performance appraisal reluctance
• Benefits of performance appraisals
• Developing an Employee Performance Plan
• Agreeing on key job responsibilities
• Setting goals to be achieved
• Developing Performance Plans
• Your Employee Performance Plan
• Practice: Developing an Employee Performance Plan
• Employee performance planning
• Developing Performance Plans
• Monitoring Ongoing Employee Performance
• Keeping performance records
• Updating objectives as required
• Monitoring Performance
• Performance Appraisal Essentials: Conducting Traditional Appraisals
• Preparing for the Performance Appraisal Meeting
• Gathering information
• Evaluating performance
• Filling out the appraisal form
• Preparing for a Performance Appraisal Meeting
• Consider Your Effect on Employee Performance
• Conducting the Performance Appraisal Meeting
• The appraisal process
• Setting the stage
• Discussing performance
• Planning for the future
• Conducting Appraisal Meetings
• Handling an Emotional Employee During an Appraisal
• How to deal with emotional employees
• Acknowledging emotion
• Maintaining your position
• Performance Appraisal Essentials: 360-degree Appraisals
• 360-degree Appraisals
• Benefits of the 360-degree appraisal
• Gathering feedback
• Selecting and preparing appraisers
• Preparing and delivering feedback
• Creating a plan of action
• Conducting a 360-degree Appraisal
• Gathering Feedback for 360-degree Appraisals
• Using questionnaires
• Using interviews
• Choosing the right method
• Choosing a Method for Gathering Feedback
• Choosing appraisers
• electing Appraisers for Your 360-degree Appraisal
• Delivering Feedback in a 360-degree Appraisal
• Methods for delivering feedback
• Techniques for delivering feedback